Dr. Huimin Zhao, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering department, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) was invited to visit Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology Chinese Academy of Sciences (TIB, CAS) on August 23th. Scientists from TIB gave the visitor a warm reception and welcome.

　　  During his visit in TIB, Dr. Zhao gave a talk entitled “Surfing the Third Wave of Biotechnology: Turning Trash into Cash”. He presented his research data on the development and applications of new protein and metabolic engineering tools for industrial biotechnology.Particularly, he elaborated: (i) development of a new tool for rapid assembly, characterization, and engineering of biochemical pathways, (ii) discovery, characterization, and engineering of the antimalarial drug FR900098, and (iii) engineering of new biosynthetic pathways and whole cells for production of value-added chemicals. After the lecture, Dr. Zhao introduced his research group and important results on industrial biotechnology. The participants had a lively discussion about the antimalarial drug FR900098. Dr. Zhao wished his visiting will strengthen exchanges and communication of TIB and UIUC in the area of education, academic exchange and resource sharing.

Lecture by Dr. Huimin Zhao, Biologist at UIUC